Shamanism is a religious practice centered on a shaman who is a cultural mediator and peacekeeper useing healing, divination, trance, magic and their knowledge of their cultural beliefs and religious traditions to communicate on behalf of their community with the spirits, including the deceased. Shamans believe they can alleviate unrest, assuage unsettled issues, predict the future, solve social problems and immersing in a lifelong study of plants heal the sick. They are believed to achieve powers using trance or ecstatic religious experience. Regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, shamans are viewed as counselors and religious leaders among indigenous groups in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the Americas. They typically enter a trance state or have an ecstatic religious experience during a ritual and practice divination and healing. They are generally believed to be able to communicate with the otherworld and escort souls of the dead to the netherworld.
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Nats worship was integral to indigenous beliefs in Burma/Myanmar since before the arrival of Buddhism. Burmese-carvings of these mythical or deified humans are seen in Buddhist temples, pagodas, government buildings, and in nat centers throughout Burma. Nats existed in early forms in shamanism and animism beginning when life was associated with agricultural pursuits and the…
Burmese carvings are known for fine craftsmanship, masterful decoration, and functional items including carved heddle pulleys used in strip-weaving. Used in pairs at the top of the loom, heddle pulleys are functional and aesthetic and usually decorated with auspicious images symbolizing figures or animals protecting the weaver, assuring good quality weaving, and pleasing the gods…
Oxen/bullocks and their carts were the primary means in Burma/Myanmar for plowing, hauling or transportation. Inexpensive and adaptable to any terrain, they were used to tend fields and carry goods, agricultural products, lumber, and people. Two or four-wheeled carts were pulled by one or a pair of oxen that were hitched to the cart by…
Heddle pulleys were used in strip-weaving, a small-loom process producing long cloth strips sewn together creating a larger textile such as blankets and ritual cloths. A source of pride for the carver, heddles were decorated with carved figures or animals symbolizing auspicious beings scholars believe protect the weavers and assure their weavings were of good…
Burmese carvings are known for fine craftsmanship, masterful decoration, and functional items including carved heddle pulleys used in strip-weaving. In pairs at the top of the loom, heddles are functional and aesthetic and usually were decorated with auspicious images symbolizing figures or animals protecting the weaver and assured good quality weaving that pleased the gods…
Chinese puppets historically played a large role in entertaining the general public and in educating rural illiterate populations especially about the role and importance of deities such as the Queen-Mother of the West Xiwangmu. This puppet’s headdress blends influences associated with the long history of the Queen Mother who evolved as a significant goddess from…
This elegant heddle pulley with a hamsa is carved from a single piece of Burmese teak and portrayed with deeply cut wings to express well-articulated feathers. Having an unusually long tail, it runs from his rear and curves to the top of its head. Its feet are atop two connected heart-shaped panels that hide the moving thimble between them providing a more artistic feel. This piece is in very good condition, is wonderfully weathered, and has with minor losses with a fine patina covers its originally painted surface. Mounted on a black wood base, this heddle pulley pairs well with item number 11298A.
This image from Guandong wears typical Taoist priest or shaman attire – an undergarment crossed at the neck, an overcoat clasped at the waist and a double-winged high hat centered with an image of a taotie. The taotie is a mystical animal sometimes on the hat of Taoist priests or shamans as a guardian or…
This rare, vintage spirit mask is from Timor in Indonesia. Their animism is characterized by ritual exchanges between individuals or social groups with ancestral and fertility spirits having a close reciprocal link between the deceased and the secular world as ancestors require sustenance, respect and attention (i.e. offerings), while humans seek advice, good fortune, health…
The culture, rituals, tribal and ethnic art of the Dayak (Dyak) of Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia is a mix of shamanism, animism and ancestor worship. Dyak festival masks worn on the face or large ones attached to a costume repel malicious spirits from entering communal spaces, insure village safety, protect babies in their carriers and defend…
The Dayak (Dyak) people live on the Island of Kalimantan in the Indonesia part of Borneo and their hudoq masks are offerings to attract gods, ancestors and sacred rice spirits that assure the fertility of rice and protect villages. They are tribal, folk and ethnic objects that may not only worn on the face; they…
The religion of the ethnic Dayak (Dyak) people of Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia is a mix of animism, shamanism and ancestor worship. Their word hudoq describes three different things: it describes the pests that can destroy the rice harvest on which their survival depends; the name of the huge yearly Dyak planting celebration and the name…
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